Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTN) rely on a store-and-forward protocol for transferring bundles of data. DTN protocols are designed for allowing communications in environments causing long delays, such as in space, for highly asymmetric communications, such as communicating with a robot on another planet, and as well for networks suffering from unstable connections.
The architecture and protocol of DTN are standardized, and information about those standards can be found in the Internet Engineering Task Force Official Documents.
An exemplary representation of a DTN network is provided in FIG. 1. More particularly, FIG. 1 schematically represents the transport of Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) messages over a DTN network. The DTN network transports HTTP messages between a first HTTP client (left-hand side) and a HTTP server (right-hand side). When HTTP messages reach the DTN network from an Internet Protocol (IP) network, a proxy is used to modify the received HTTP messages to allow proper transport over the DTN network by adding a Bundle Protocol (BP) header as defined in the standard Internet Engineering Task Force Request for Comments (IETF RFC) 5050. The modified HTTP messages are then transported over the DTN network, hopping from node-to-node, until they reach the exit proxy, which removes the BP header from the received HTTP messages, and forwards the HTTP messages to the HTTP server over a regular IP network.
This method of transporting HTTP messages over a DTN network also allows carrying of other application-layer protocols such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), and others. Furthermore, this approach provides several benefits, such as minimizing developer training, reusing existing development tools, reuse of existing frameworks, while being completely transparent to users.
However, current DTN architecture and standards do not provide a suitable means of transport of HTTP traffic requiring larger payload, streaming, and other such applications. There is thus a need to improve the current DIN architecture and protocol so as to better support a greater variety of HTTP traffic.